PacAttack
by darthmask
Summary: the alien invasion nearly wiped out the entire human race. My four best friends died as a result of it all. Now only i remain to put the pieces together and save us all again.
1. A Short Prelude

The following is my first fan fiction written for this site. the characters and names are property of the Namco company.

The title is derived from another classic arcade game, a pacman style tetris rip-off.

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><p>A PRELUDE<p>

Earth: 20XX

The invasion seemed eminent at this time, all of earth's resources had been used up and all of our efforts had all ended in furthering this exhaustion. Our best efforts seemed feeble against the force of the aliens; their tech alone was enough to make even Steve Jobs blush.

The vast majority of the planet had lost all faith in human kind and seemed all to willing to meet their final destination. Lord knows, that might have been better. Those that had the slightest sliver of faith left took up arms in preparation of our impending doom. We were shipped away, away to what seemed more or less like a corporate block. Once we disembarked they told us that we would under go "training" to combat the alien fleet. Training, seemed more like torture, every day they would impose a mandatory PT, not your standard boot camp stuff either. Then was the chemical testing, Day after day we were injected with what was what they called the "PAC" serum. More and more of us were dropping by the day. At last it came to the moment where there were only about five of us able to stand.

They issued us, the remaining, into a new room; it appeared more as a class room than anything else. Five of us in all, we began talking amongst our selves, got to know each other real well.

Inky: a tough customer if you ever laid eyes on one. Apparently before the war he was real big into that anarchy stuff, and apparently he never gave it up. His face, as well as the majority of his body, was covered with cuts, scrapes, and bruises of every sort. When asked about them he refused to answer and rarely made eye contact with us. He had those light brown eyes that looked more like flames than anything else and he had red-rust colored hair.

Blinky: he was nice, he was always smiling, he even told a few jokes of his own from time to time. He always had that big goofy grin which played so well with those thick horned rimmed glasses.

Pinky: the only girl in our group. If I recall correctly she was fairly pretty, don't get me wrong she could handle just about any kind of weapon better than any man could, but, I don't know there was something wonderful about her. Maybe it was her fire and ice kind of attitude and her jet black hair.

Clyde: he was kind of a loner didn't really speak much, but when he did he was loud about it. He could get his point across from across a room. With an air of persuasion you could not say no to. He was nothing special to look at really, just a ginger with a soul.

And then there was me: I was born Packard, though now, more than ever, I go by the nickname the guys gave me. I'm not complaining it suited me quite well. Let me restart, and then there was me, the Pac-man. They called me this because, unlike most of the other test subjects, the PAC serum didn't affect me. Even Inky with his tough as nails spirit squirmed a little when he was injected.

The first thing that happened, once we wrapped up our little introductions, was a scientist with white hair came in and shook our hands. He started spewing some nonsense about us being the ideal subjects and the amount of PAC we took altered our bodies tremendously.

We had no idea what this old coot was saying, well frankly most of us were just happy to hear that training was finished. He led us into another in a series of rooms equipping us with strange devices which we put on without question. I couldn't help but notice the different colors of our new suits. Red for Inky, blue for Blinky, pink for Pinky, orange for Clyde, and yellow for me.

It was later that we found out that the colors were more than arbitrary. Each suit had hidden potentials. For instance Inky's suit gave him incredible speed and agility, Blinky's gave him incredible intelligence far beyond him alone, Pinky gained great accuracy and precision, and Clyde got a multitude of built in weapons. Try though I might I was unable to figure out what mine did. I tested it every witch way and then some, to no avail.

The day arrived and we went out to the battle field to meet our enemy head on. They arrived shortly thereafter. We charged in each with our new abilities, and, I've got to hand it to those lab technicians, they really did a good job. We were barely taking any blows and we were taking down ten of them at a time. Then without warning, a drone took out Clyde, then another took out Pinky and Blinky, I examined them and they were alive, merely unconscious, it was me and Inky left to fight the good fight. And we put up with them for a few hours, when a laser blast comes from nowhere nearly hitting me. I thought I was a goner, but instead of a hot stinging death I hear screams of agony. I open my eyes and there is Inky blocking the laser.

The beam ends and he falls. I look into his eyes and he looks back, he smiles and says to me, "finish them, and put them back in the box" and his eyes close barely alive. I look up and see just how many are left, tears fill my eyes and I am filled with a rage, a rage unlike any ever experienced I yell out in agony, as I do these tiny yellow dots start moving towards me and my entire body starts to glow. I look over at Inky then Blinky, Pinky and then Clyde. It became all to clear where these lights were coming from as I watched the light fade from their eyes. More and more come as I focus my rage on those responsible, the aliens. I take a massive leap hurling myself into the middle of them and in my rage I explode.

Well not me, my rage. I notice that all the ships and drones turn a deep blue color and then dissolve as if they were never there. Every last one of them, now gone.

I black out…


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Blank Screen

50 years after the Grand Invasion

As I awake I notice a few things right off the bat. First of all my head is pounding in agony, as if a thousand blacksmiths were pounding away at an anvil within my head. Secondly that I was wet, my entire body was coated in what seemed to be this liquid jelly substance. I find myself in, what from my perspective appears to be a pod of some sort. As I attempt to move I find my arms hung up in a rather unnatural position. They were bounded in chords with receptors placed on all of my major muscles and nerve endings. I look sown and my legs are in a similar state.

I break one arm free from the chords which it is bound in. I then relieve my other arm from its chords. Slowly I am able to move one leg then another and I feel them breaking free from their receptors and receptors previously unfelt attached to my spine.

I exit the pod, still uneasy on my feet. I try to look around but the room is dark with the exception of the lights from the pod and some from nearby computers. I walk, uneasily, toward the computer and examine the data on the screen, most of it made no sense to me, one thing I remember vividly was this one circle it seemed in constant fluxuation, opening and closing.

Then, suddenly, the room is flooded with this bright radiant light. I strain my eyes to see a figure descending a, previously unnoticed, flight of stairs. My eyes slowly adjust to the change in light and my vision is for the most part restored. The figure was male probably 72 to 80 years of age he had white hair sticking out from either side of his head and everywhere else he was bald. He seems unsurprised to see me. There are so many questions that I wish to ask him but as of now only one comes to mind.

"What happened?"

To that he merely smiles and offers me a seat in front of the computer. I take him up on his offer as I feel suddenly weak in the knees. He enters some information into the computer and a video pops up. The film quality seems grainy as though deteriorated with age. It shows me, except, I'm unconscious. Various doctors and professionals examine me; take blood, vitals, etc. Then they inject me with more of what I recognize as the PAC serum the scenes are sped up as I am given a continuous feed of the serum. Then I am placed in a pod similar to the one I just got out of, and then the tape is sped up faster and faster the pod grows old and rusty, though I still remain inside. I look back to the pod and it is in fact the same one.

The video ends and I turn back to the old man he looks at me trying to judge my reaction. "What does all this mean?" I ask to him.

"I- um well you see" the man, choking over his own words. Finally he musters up the courage to be direct with it. "The world as you know it, is long since gone, you have been in a state of suspended animation for the past 50 or so years. Heh, I should know."

It became clear to me now I recognized his face from one of the doctors in the video. "But why?"

"After the Invasion, you blacked out evidently caused by all that energy you exerted from your body in that final stand. You needed time to recover; to treat you in any other way would mean certain death for you. We took the necessary precautions to ensure your life."

My head was reeling and it seemed as if I could fade at any moment then one last question came to my mind, "Where are my friends?"

"Friends?"

"Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde." I almost shout and I pound my hand against the desk, "Where are they?"  
>The man now has a blank expressionless face as he delivers the news, "they're dead PAC-man they're all dead."<p> 


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

First Questions Answered

"Dead, what do you mean, dead?"

"I mean they're dead Pac-man." By now I am in a state of shock. My breathing accelerates and my mind swims trying to think back to that day.

"How did this happen?" I try my hardest to keep composure in this situation but, it's difficult.

The old man sighs and again turns to the computer; he pulls up another video, this one of the battle itself. Oddly enough I don't remember there being a camera crew there, let alone one close enough to get this footage. We get to the scene where things looked the most dire, where my friends are taken out one by one by alien drones. I remember a dense rage coursing through my body. Just as I remember this the man pauses the video on an image of me, it appeared as if I was glowing, as I recall this is where the yellow dots came in. "Do you recall the yellow dots?" he asks me in a tone almost as a professor would, quizzing me.

"Yes, but doc what does this have to do with," he holds up his finger and cuts me off half way through. He again motions at the computer screen.

"Notice where they are coming from," I look again at the screen. It appeared as if the dots were coming from within my friends. "That's right," he says taking my attention away from the computer screen. "These dots are concentrated energy. It appears you drew the energy from their core."

"You mean," I stammer, "that I am responsible for all of this?"

"No, no, don't think of it like that. You can't be blamed for this, you were angry and you didn't have a grasp on your power yet. Your anger just seemed to channel your power, perhaps more effectively that we would have hoped."

I knew the doctor's words were intended to calm and comfort me, yet I still could not help feel some guilt for my friends' deaths. I tried to gather all this newly processed information but a few questions remained. Why am I still alive, and why am I here, now, of all times?"

The old man sighed took out a rag and wiped his brow with it. He replaces it and immediately turns his attention back to me. "The organization that ran the tests, trained you, and ultimately was responsible for you and your friends' experience was actually the Nam Corporation, a multi-million dollar company; technically they had all rights to you and didn't want to see such a promising project go to waste, so while you were unconscious the continued to inject you with the "PAC" serum until your body had reached its max. So they kept you in storage until the day they may need your services again."

"So they finally decided to wake me up."

"Wrong, Pac-man, I did," He said this very matter-of-factly, almost bordering on the ominous side, "that corporation has long since become corrupt and turned its back to the endeavors of the past. I was the only one who remained in good faith that someday you would be reawakened and restore balance to the earth."

"Look," I say to the man, "it's not that I'm not grateful for being reawakened and all, that's not it at all, I just don't feel like having to save the world is a proper wake up call. So with all due respect I'll be seeing ya'." I turn from the man and I start heading towards the radiating light coming from above the stairs.

"WAIT! I'm not going to make you stay," he approaches me from the side and hands me a parcel, "just don't leave without this." I look at the brown paper wrapped parcel, half expecting it to explode in my hands. Slowly I tear away at the paper until I got to what lay inside. There, coated in a layer of dust, was my old yellow suit. I put it on as I once again feel the snugness it entailed. It made me realize just how long I had been in suspended animation. Now in my newly reunited suit I take another step toward the door, "If you decide to change your mind, you know where to find me." The man now says sitting at his computer turns away and face the computer. I nod in his direction and I walk into the blinding light of the outside.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ready!

I stepped out into the cold, crisp, air. A breeze caught my hair almost immediately. I remember I had to squint to make out the details of the land around me; apparently my eyes weren't quite adjusted yet. It was another moment or two before I was able to make out the horrors of the world that lay before me.

Keep in mind that not everything had changed; there were buildings, skyscrapers, and the like. It was just that, the city was devoid of almost all life. On first impression you wouldn't believe it to be earth at all. More like a planet made entirely made of concrete, and I was in the midst of the ever widening valley. Every step I took made a very distinct sound, that of rubber against any hard surface.

Step after step, that resonating echo reminded me just how alone I was. Or how alone I thought I was. Then, behind me I heard the sound like rapid foot steps, not unlike a human's. I turn around, yet there is no one to be found. "Hello," I call out; "is anyone there?" There is no reply from the so called footsteps. I turn back in my initial direction suspecting the sound was nothing more than a piece of paper, or some other debris. Then there was that sound, scuttling, but this time there was an accompanying sound to it. Sounded soft at first then it grew louder, the only way I could describe it, dear reader, is to call it by exactly what it was laughter. Not just laughter but perhaps the most maniacal evil laughter I had heard yet.

I turn around again, and to my displeasure there was something this time. It was almost human in appearance, yet there was something very odd about it. I can now say with the utmost certainty that it was the hunched over stance, this made it appear much smaller than it actually was, hut this was nothing in comparison to the discoloration. The figure's skin was a very unhealthy shade of yellow, not quite as bright as my suit, yet a little more prominent than a mere case of jaundice.

The creature charged at me, laughing its laugh, my first instinct is to run from it, but no I take a battle stance and prepare to fight. The training we had undergone for the initial invasion had left me with a few mixed martial arts skills, but with my body in the newly awakened state that it was it was anyone's guess what was to come. Feral, the creature tries to claw at my eyes but I have it held at arms length. I take it with both hands and I flip it and throw it to the ground.

What happened then was perhaps the most interesting. The creature did not merely die as any other would have, oh no, it dissolved into the air, leaving a small glowing orb of yellow light where it had once been. Then this newly appeared orb floats towards me and into my mouth, giving one the impression that I was eating it in a way. It had no flavor nor did it have and adverse side effects on me, in fact I felt rejuvenated and energized in a way I hadn't felt since…

No, not now…

Now is not the time, everything was going so well too…


	5. Chapter 4

Sorry guys, it's been a while since... well since i added to the storyline. School became my main concern and as finals drew near I couldn't keep writing for this every day. WEll now i'll try to keep the story at as regular an interval as possible. Hope you enjoy my latest instalment of Pacattack.

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><p>Chapter 4: First a Flash-Back<p>

Though it was decades ago; to me it had only been a few days. Everyone was ill at ease then and the days all melded together. Either it was the extensive training or the serum but it seemed as if the five of us hadn't slept in days. Not, though it seemed, that we needed it we were all constantly full of energy and extra vigor.

The training wasn't that unusual. We lifted weights, we were injected with serum, we did vigorous physical training, we were injected with serum, but by far our favorite for of training was the maze.

The maze if I recall was a large stone structure about 30 or 40 feet high and so tremendously wide that we never actually got around to measuring it. There was no entrance or exit from the maze itself. We had to be lowered in one by one into the maze.

The goal of the maze was a one versus team death match of sorts. We had to prepare ourselves against the staggering number of enemies as opposed to the relatively small number of us. The first person lowered would almost always be at a definite disadvantage as they had little time to familiarize them selves with the layout. One by one "enemies" would be sent in to dispatch the one in the maze as quickly as possible. The first person's goal was to eliminate all "enemies" and find the center of the maze.

We had all had our share of time in the maze. I never really enjoyed the concept as much as my friends did, to me the idea of a whole team against a singular individual.

I open my eyes to find myself once again in the deserted streets of a once fine metropolis. I had stopped for a moment to gaze up at the stone monument the likes of which I hadn't seen since. . .

My gawking was short lived as I heard a voice behind me, "familiar isn't it?" slowly I turned around staring me dead in the face were those familiar horn rimmed glasses I had seen oh so many times before. "Well, Pac-Man," inky began with his usual grin, "what do you think?"

"I-I thought you were dead." I began.

"Dead?" he began to walk towards me, "dead doesn't seem like the right word for it, does it? Well, I know one thing for certain" he grinned from ear to ear as he plunged his cold hand into my chest cavity. To my surprise it went all the way through. He leaned in and whispered, "I'm not alive."

Shaking from my state of confusion I pull away from his, not-so-dead, grip, "how long have you been like this?"

"A ghost you mean? Long enough to see this fine city dissipate into the rat's hole it is now," his body rose from the pavement taking flight, "but there'll be plenty of time for questions later" gripping me by my shoulders and lifting me into the air high above the walls of the maze.

Again with that grin he said one final thing, "let the games begin", and he let go.


End file.
